(22 July 2015 - 05:04 PM)Rockets actually are only committed to Lawson for 2015-16 season as they renegotiated with Lawson's agent and have a team option for 2016-17 season. Is Morey incredible or what when negotiating?

the recurrent theme of pulling Lin out especially at important times in the game might do more to shake his confidence than repair it. It does nothing more than signal we don't believe in either your ability to defend or provide offense in late game situations so without further adieux ladies and gentleman ... Toney Douglas.

I think Douglas is a good Derek Fisher to Harden's Kobe Bryant. He should not be allowed to run an offense under any circumstances, but he can provide solid defense and shooting off the ball. As much as I would hate to see Lin lose his starting gig for the sake of his confidence, I think he might fit best as the leader of the second unit with unfettered control over the offense.
Also, it's great to see Patterson looking very, very good in the post against some very, very good defenders.

Regarding Lin, we have to remember that he is a relatively inexperienced NBA PG. Plus, learning to play efficiently with Hardin -- who needs the ball often in the half-court to be effective -- will take some time. Thus, variances in his performance level at this stage of the season are to be expected. My sense is that he will come around, probably when his confidence improves through better shooting.

Great win last night! Parsons is proving wrong to some people in this forums, showing he can really put some good numbers, both in points and rebounds. Last season he had only 2 double-doubles, this season has 4 so far. He is showing he could well be our SF for the forseeable future.
Asik had unimpressive numbers, that's right, and against a team that knows his weaknesses and strengths, but what stats don't show is that he disrupted a great amount of shots, which is just as important as shot-blocking, that's why probably PPat got 8 rebounds last night (I still can't believe Noah drained those near 3-land shots with that awful mechanic, lol). But, like Rahat mentioned, he got that amazing block against Noah in the final moments
Douglas may not be a great offensive player, but he can shoot from downtown. I really didn't care that he only made 1 field goal, because that field goal put us ahead in the final moments, so he wasn't fazed by the pressure, also making all his free throws, 4 of them in the last minute, and that's what we need from our players. He also made important plays on defense, specially one that resulted in a turnover from Robinson who passed it to Deng from the baseline and he pressured Deng not letting him receive the ball, that was almost unperceptible but was really important, we need those little things to improve us a whole, we need to hustle (that's why we are all liking what Morris and Smith are bringing to the table right now, lots of hustle).
They might lose more close games that what they may win, but we can't lose them for making silly mistakes, we have to make the opposite team earn that close wins and last night we were able to shut them down for a considerable amount of time.

Lin and Sampson are in a tough situation. Sampson is focused on winning now and he'll do whatever it takes to get that W, even if it's at the expense of building for the future. He doesn't care about developing Lin because he knows each win builds the case that he can be a head coach in the NBA. If a coach was secure in his job, he'd take risks and keep Lin in to let him learn from his mistakes and to gain confidence when he succeeds. Sampson is looking at the present while Lin keeps looking to the future. Someone needs to talk some sense into Lin and tell him that he doesn't have the luxury to take all season to work it out. Sampson isn't looking out for his best interest. Lin needs to throw caution to the wind and start playing like his job is at stake. Otherwise, his story line will mirror Douglas' story line last year, where a starting PG is relegated to the end of the bench with no PT.

Good win that will pay dividends down the road as the Rockets learned what it tales to win a close game.

I cannot get too happy about our starting PF grabbing a whopping 8 rebounds in 38 minutes.
Esp not in a game where the other team missed 57 field goal attempts and the Rockets missed 42 shots of their own.

I agree Livingston would have been a large help to this team,as he could have played SG on the second unit,giving it someone who could set up Douglas,Delfino and Morris. Oh well. I can understand the financial reasons as keeping him would have ended up costing Les several million-both for Livingston's contract and the buyout of Cook or Aldrich-and the loss of several million in Cap Space this yr.